Posted: Mon, Aug 31, 2009, 8:58 PM ET (0058 GMT)
An upper stage malfunction of a Chinese rocket has stranded its payload, a communications satellite, in a transfer orbit after a launch Monday. The Long March 3B lifted off from the Xichang spaceport at 5:28 am EDT (0928 GMT, 5:28 pm Beijing time) Monday, carrying the Palapa-D satellite for Indonesia. The launch initially appeared to go well, but the rocket's upper stage either failed to restart or shut down early, stranding Palapa-D in an elliptical transfer orbit. Spacecraft engineers are investigating whether the satellite can use its own thrusters to raise itself into its planned orbit in GEO; if not, the spacecraft will likely be written off as a total loss. The failure is the first for a Long March-series rocket in 13 years. China had been attempting to get the Long March back into the commercial market by launching communications satellites either built domestically or, as in the case of Palapa-D, from European manufacturer Thales Alenia Space, who makes "ITAR-free" satellites without any US components, thus avoiding US export restrictions of satellite components to China.
